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The WIC Research (WICR) website claims, “We have perhaps the world's second largest collection of Wine-in-Cans, dating back to the first one produced, in 1936!”

You read that right: 1936. Until recently, the last wine-in-a-can product in the U.S. that made news was in the 1970s, produced by the Taylor/Great Western wineries in the Finger Lakes for an airline.

WICR has researched and analyzed the market for canned wine since 2016. The research company created the first quantitative canned wine survey in 2018. This year, WICR engaged in the first quantitative survey of canned wine’s image.

A force behind WICR, Robert L. Williams, Jr. is a partner and co-founder of the branding and rebranding Mar-Kadam Associates, which also focuses on gastro-tourism consulting Gastro Gatherings. Along with colleagues from Texas Tech University, Dr. Helena Williams and PhD student Matthew Bauman, Robert Williams instigated the 1st study comparing bottled vs. canned wine, which surveyed over 3,500 people—Both Robert and Helena Williams served as judges in the 1st Annual International Canned Wine Competition held last month in the Mendocino County, Anderson Valley AVA, in Boonville, CA.

The second part of the study included a blind comparison tasting, the results of which Williams unveiled recently at the Wines & Vines Analytics Packaging Conference. The blind tasting was held at two separate locations, one of which was at Nissley Vineyards in Bainbridge, Pennsylvania, which made arrangements to get the wines from New York State—they were: Naked Moon Chardonnay, 1000 Islands, NY; Coyote Moon, Moscato, 1000 Islands; Bellangelo Riesling, Finger Lakes; Bridge Lane Rosé, North Fork, Long Island. Each wine came in a bottled and a canned version.

Eighty-six volunteers, aged 21-77, participated in the comparison taste—22 male and 64 female. 63.6% of the male volunteers and 48.3% of the females had tried wine-in-a-can before.

Each type of wine was served (blind) in two separate cups—one for bottled, one for canned. Participants were asked which one they liked better: A, B, or No Difference.

According to Williams, “Preliminary conclusions suggest that tasters reported no strong preferences between the identical wine packaged in a can, vs. packaged in a bottle…Dry Rosé and Dry Riesling showed the greatest difference in preference for wine in a Can vs. Bottle [Dry Riesling in Can, 57.2%; Dry Rosé in Can, 68.3%].”

About the overall canned wine research, Williams says, “Our research suggests that demand is not solely a factor of gender nor age. And most significantly, regardless of subjective wine knowledge, the awareness, trial and purchasing practices showed no differences.”

He cautions wine producers not to make assumptions about the profile of wine-in-a-can consumers, and he claims the canned wine market is driven by Convenience, Occasion Location, Sustainability/Cost savings, Quality, Portion control/Variability and Visual Image/Branding.

Perhaps convenience and portion control give cans the edge over bottles, and maybe that’s why the research points to an overall 157% jump in canned wine Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) over the past year.

I am an independent wine writer, but once was a writer and producer of audio visual presentations in New York City, and a home winemaker in my spare time; then, I made

…

I am an independent wine writer, but once was a writer and producer of audio visual presentations in New York City, and a home winemaker in my spare time; then, I made wine for a small Finger Lakes winery. I've also worked as a wine distributor representative and part owner in a retail wine shop in Manhattan’s East Village. I have had hundreds of articles about wine (and food) published in trade magazines, two ongoing upstate NY newspaper columns, and authored five books with wine and/or food history as their subject.